TOUCH HUNGER

By No Water for Whales
And Charles Michel

This audiovisual piece is an ode to the sensuality of eating, to human beauty, an invitation to interact with food differently and explore it in playful sensuality, acknowledging its voluptuous life. This is a call to embrace desire for what it is: a positive force of evolution rooted deep within the body and the mind.

Sensory deprivation is an ailment of modern society, a manifestation of our modern-time disconnection from Nature: While our minds overdose on visual information, the more emotionally-powerful senses of touch and smell are often neglected, undoubtedly affecting our well-being. Scientists believe that many people may be suffering from a chronic shortage of touch, named ‘Touch Hunger’.

Food is one of the most sensory stimuli of human experiences – together with sex – one we tend to indulge ourselves in to satisfy our hunger, or desire for pleasure. However, social conventions tend to silence our instincts, mindlessly driving us towards an etiquette that takes us away from the pleasures of food, instead of heightening them. When did our animal instincts – the ones that are at the basis of our humanity – become something vulgar?

Falling into desire can be an act of beauty, if done elegantly or, may we say, sensually. The quest for beauty (in and for all senses) is the aim of all desire, in everyday life, in philosophy, and in artistic endeavor.